By José Manzaneda on May 24, 2021
Eliécer Ávila
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has caused, in less than a week, nearly 200 deaths among the Palestinian population. A quarter of them were children. Hundreds of homes, educational and health centers have been destroyed. Israel even blew up the headquarters of several western news agencies. Eliécer Ávila, leader of the Cuban “dissident” group Somos +, justified it as follows: “If the Palestinian people continue in complicity with those who attack Israel in a terrorist and cowardly manner, then don’t take people away from me like that, look, they killed my aunt! Yes, yes, your aunt lives in the same building and she was waving to the people who were going with a rocket upstairs. May the rocket come, Allah! Let them shoot the little rocket and let the drone see where it came from and let Israel respond, for you to see”
In Colombia, in the first two weeks of protests against the government’s economic policy, the repressive balance was 43 deaths and 2,300 cases of police violence. And what does the “dissident” Avila think? “We are going to travel to Colombia, where at this moment, as you know, there is a crisis and there is violence. There is no repression. (…) Colombia we are with you, they say. But which Colombia are you with? With the guerrillas, with the terrorists, with Maduro’s agents, with the arsonists, with those who want to destroy democracy?”
Thus, the ultra-right positions of a man who, for years, was presented in the media as a “moderate opponent” are now definitively uncovered. In fact, his party has, today, as its representative for Spain, Lázaro Mireles, a militant of the xenophobic far-right party Vox
A historical militant of the Cuban Counterrevolution is the former CIA agent and today an international panelist in media such as CNN, Carlos Alberto Montaner. He also supported Israel: “Israel’s logic is absolutely reasonable. (…) In a certain way it is a defensive war”. But Montaner would prefer the bombings to be carried out in Cuba and executed by the US Army. A few days ago, in Miami, in a forum entitled “Defense of democracy in the Americas”, the former presidents Alvaro Uribe, Mauricio Macri and Lenin Moreno, the Secretary General of the OAS Luis Almagro or the singer Yotuel Romero, among others, took part. There, Montaner proposed the following: “Cuba must be given an ultimatum: either it stops supporting Maduro’s narco-regime in Venezuela, or it must abide by the consequences. (…) This means that it could resort to the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, as Lyndon B. Johnson did in 1965, before invading the Dominican Republic. (…) Perhaps the threat of invasion or the destruction of the military apparatus would suffice. (…) It is uncomfortable to think that force could be used, but perhaps there is no other choice”
In recent months, calls by Cuban “dissidents” for military intervention on the island have intensified. This is what Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat said from Miami: “It is legitimate and we call for an international intervention led by the US to overthrow this regime and put an end to it”. The same message was sent by Guillermo Fariñas, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize: “I agree with a total blockade and I agree that, if repression increases, there should be a humanitarian intervention by TIAR because Cuba, even though it does not belong to the OAS, is in the geographical area of TIAR and TIAR has the right to intervene in Cuba”. Maykel Osorbo, rapper and member of the so-called San Isidro Movement, was even more explicit: “Here what we have to put is fire brother. Do you want this to change? Fire. (…) I support an invasion right now. Are you going to invade Cuba? Come here”.
Such is the “pacifism” of the Cuban “dissidence” and its old aspiration to see the bombing of Gaza… in Havana.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English